


A New Beginning

by mildlyholmes



Series: The Family Potter [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, potter party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:28:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildlyholmes/pseuds/mildlyholmes
Summary: Lily and James share their news with their closest friends.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, James/Lily, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter & Lily Evans Potter
Series: The Family Potter [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969438
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This ties into my other fic, 'A Happy Accident', but can be read alone.

By the time tomorrow comes, the soon-to-be parents have agreed to announce their news during their conveniently timed Halloween party. The only problem is that Lily’s determined to wait until after dinner, and James is getting antsy.

Theirs is not a large cottage by any means, which works in their favour given the small – and despairingly so, according to James – gathering. Still, it’s a squeeze to fit everyone onto their cosy dining table, even with the extension charm placed on it. James is lodged between Lily and Sirius, with Remus directly across them, and he’s wolfed down his dinner so quickly that Sirius has had to slap his back a few times to stop him choking.

“Leave some for the rest of us, mate,” Sirius laughs. “That’s no way to treat your guests.”

“As if you’re any better,” he shoots back, nodding at his friend’s loaded plate.

“Yeah, but difference is, I’m a guest, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, but difference is, I’m not a greedy git, am I?”

Lily rolls her eyes and Mary MacDonald snorts into her pudding. He winks at his wife, but thinks that really, she should get off her high horse; her plate is as clean as his, though, in her defence, she’d eaten a significantly smaller portion than him.

A roar of laughter is heard as Benjy Fenwick delivers the punchline to a joke about the witch, the yeti, and the blibbering humdinger; James can see Marlene McKinnon wiping away tears of laughter while Peter repeatedly says, “I don’t get it.” He feels a soft touch and turns to see Lily smiling softly at him, her thumb stroking his thigh soothingly. He realises his foot has been tapping agitatedly for the past minute or two, and abruptly stills.

Although, it turns out that he doesn’t have to be tense for long. It’s as a delighted Mary shares the news about Frank and Alice’s pregnancy to Remus that he comments, “Oh, wicked, Baby Flobberworm’s got friends already.”

“James!” Lily admonishes as the rest turn to stare at them both. Though, by the way she beams, he gathers that she’s quite glad to have it out in the open, too.

The table is silent for a long minute, before Remus repeats, “Baby Flobberworm?”

“That’s the size of the baby right now,” Lily explains.

Another beat of silence, before a collective roar sounds from their guests. Chairs are scraped back as their friends quickly rise to their feet, making a beeline towards the couple who are now being smothered with hugs and firm handshakes and kisses to the cheek. Remus keeps exclaiming, “A baby!” as if he’d never heard of anything more wonderful; Benjy, Marlene and Mary are bouncing in their excitement as they tackle Lily from both sides; Sirius has James in a headlock, bellowing, “Just as I thought you couldn’t get more domesticated!” Even Peter, who’s rarely one for great emotion, beams as he congratulates Lily.

The excitement paves way to merry celebration as Benjy summons goblets and their stocks of alcohol, including a rather expensive bottle of elf-made wine someone had brought over. With a flick of his wand, the goblets zoom towards every set of hands, apart from Lily, who calls out, “Pumpkin juice for me, thanks!” to a chorus of cheers.

Once everyone has a drink in hand, Sirius bounds up on the magically cleared table and raises his glass. “While it’s a bloody shame that James’ days of irresponsibility are over,” he booms loudly to rambunctious laughter, “at least we’ve got another troublemaker on the way!”

“Oh, don’t start –” James groans, and the laughter only grows louder.

Sirius grins widely at the pair of them. “To Baby Flobberworm!” he cheers. There’s a collective cry of, “Baby Flobberworm!” as everyone drains their goblets.

Soon, James finds himself in their sitting room as someone blares the wireless to pumping music. It’s tuned onto a Muggle radio station, but everyone sings along without pause, no doubt familiar with the music Lily so often insists is better than wizarding songs. Their cat, dressed ridiculously as a basilisk, hisses grumpily as it’s passed around to be cooed and laughed at. People keep pressing drinks into his hand once they spot him with an empty goblet and he happily drains them all, his grin wild and hair a sweaty mop on his head. Lily doesn’t seem to mind; in fact, she seems to actively encourage his inebriation, laughing, “Well, one of us has got to drink!”

He loses himself in the music and the wild cheers of delight from his friends, his heart soaring. Lily is glowing and jumping up and down to the beat of the music in the middle of the room with a wonderfully joyful Remus, yelling the lyrics out as he shakes with laughter. Benjy has levitated his camera and shouts for the occasional picture, and their poses get more and more absurd as the night goes on. They eventually boo loudly as Peter predictably stumbles to the bathroom at some point, looking both green and flushed pink at the same time.

Eventually, they begin a round of toasts for anything and everything.

“To Lily and James!”

“To the Order!”

“To getting knocked up straight out of school!”

“That’s not scandalous at all! We’re married!” Lily calls, giggling madly.

“To getting legally knocked up straight out of school!” James shouts to a round of loud hoots.

“All right then, parents,” Mary calls excitedly once they begin to settle again, “which would you like? Boy or girl?”

Lily immediately says, “Girl,” while James answers, “Boy,” easily. They turn to look at each other hotly.

“You’ve already got a sister!” James whines, slurring a little. “You don’t have a boy in the family, surely you want one –”

“I’ve had enough practice with you lot,” she shoots back over the loud music, “you’re the stuff of nightmares! Girls aren’t half as bad!”

“I don’t know, Lily, Petunia’s quite the nightmare –”

“Oh, don’t you start –”

Sirius snorts as Remus descends into laughter. “Enough bickering, Mum and Dad!” he shouts over the music. “Baby Flobberworm might have to step up to parent you two!”

They bite back a laugh as Lily and James both turn in tandem to fix withering glares at the two.

“Oh, I’ve got one!” Marlene says excitedly, pushing into their fold. “Who’s the baby going to look like?”

James guffaws, slinging an arm unsteadily over her. “Well obviously, he’ll look just like me, but have Lily’s hair – gotta pass that down, innit, that’s the one thing she’s got going for her!”

“You twat!” Lily screeches, launching herself at her husband to another round of cheers.

“Merlin,” Remus says amusedly as Lily starts to chase James around, “forget the baby, you two’ll be giving us grey hairs before long.”

“To Remus’s grey hairs!” James, who’s managed to escape Lily by hoisting her up onto his back, roars.

After, when Lily’s begun to replace his drinks with water and everyone’s drunkenly exchanging goodbyes, and the lights are dimmed as his wife escorts his – decidedly less, but still very much so – inebriated self up the stairs and helps him into bed, James presses a sloppy kiss on her cheek. “Thanks,” he sighs contentedly, burrowing into her side and closing his eyes.

He hears a soft laugh. “For what?”

“This,” he lifts a groggy hand to gesture around aimlessly. “Saying yes to me, to this life. For having our baby.”

The laugh is louder this time. “We haven’t had the baby yet, James.”

“Still.” He pulls her closer, breathing in her floral scent, intoxicating his senses. “I never thought I’d be here with you, like this. It’s a dream.”

Silence, for a moment, then he feels her press a kiss to the top of his head. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”


End file.
